Home Depot Plans Price Cuts

September 16, 2008

Atlanta The Home Depot Inc. plans to start cutting prices this week on as many as 1,200 items, from trash bags to toilets, to boost sluggish sales and win back customers who have started to shop at competitors, according to the Associated Press. Prices will be cut between 5% and 50% — although the company couldn't say what the average reduction will be—on about one out of every 25 items found on store shelves.

The Home Depot Inc. plans to start cutting prices this week on as many as 1,200 items, from trash bags to toilets, to boost sluggish sales and win back customers who have started to shop at competitors, according to the Associated Press.

Prices will be cut between 5% and 50%—although the company couldn't say what the average reduction will be—on about one out of every 25 items found on store shelves.

The discounts will begin showing up in stores this week and will last at least through the next quarter.

Home Depot is already working to change its merchandising efforts, eliminating products such as clothing that executives feel aren't related to the company's core business lines. It's also scaling back redundancies in some areas by eliminating multiple types of the same products that are stocked on shelves, the report said.

At the same time, the company is trying to revamp its supply chain by creating as many as 20 regional distribution centers. So far, three are open.

Last August, it sold its wholesale distribution business, HD Supply, to a group of private-equity firms for $8.5 billion.

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